Welcome.

PLEASE NOTE: Because the health and safety of our patients, families, visitors and staff is of utmost importance to us and to prevent the spread of the virus causing COVID19 illness, new visitation restrictions are effective beginning March 11, 2020.

Palliative Care

The Bridges Palliative Care Program assists families and their children who have serious medical conditions. We offer pain and symptom management and help in making decisions about treatment options. Our mission is to provide support and improve quality of life for children and families faced with serious medical conditions.

Volunteer parents whose children have experienced the conditions affecting current patients and who are available to inform and support families.

Approach

Caring for our patients and families means addressing more than immediate medical needs. We believe that comprehensive care includes addressing the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the child and family. We will work with you to determine how we can create the fullest life possible for you and your child.

Services

Our services are available as soon as the patient receives a life-limiting diagnosis. We collaborate with the patient's physicians to manage their physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs, including:​

Improving the management of pain and other symptoms

Helping to make everyone's time together as pleasant as possible

Advocating for effective communication between the patient, family and healthcare team

Assisting patients and their families in decision-making that is reflective of their values and preferences

Providing emotional support when facing difficult circumstances

Coordinating care between the hospital and home-based palliative care services (visits by nurses, social workers, chaplains and, when available, art and music therapists when discharged at home)

Perinatal Palliative Care

Perinatal Palliative Care focuses on providing comprehensive care to families who are coping with a possibly life-limiting prenatal or neonatal diagnosis. Often there is no right or wrong way to proceed once such diagnosis is given and many families struggle with making difficult decisions.

We communicate closely with all physicians involved in the care of a family, including the obstetricians and newborn specialists at Prentice Women’s Hospital/Northwestern Memorial Hospital, as well as pediatric sub-specialists at Lurie Children’s. In this way, we seek to collaborate with all providers and families in establishing goals of care at each phase of this challenging journey.

Appointments

If you’d like to request an appointment with one of our specialists, call 1.800.543.7362 (1.800.KIDS DOC®) or visit our Appointments page for more information.

Philanthropy

Your support is vital in helping us continue to make a difference in the lives of patients and families. Lurie Children’s relies on philanthropic funding to enhance its programs, services and research for children. To learn more, please e-mail the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Foundation at foundation@luriechildrens.org or call 312.227.7500.

Lurie Children's provides healthcare regardless race, color, religion (creed), sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin (ancestry), or disability. Financial assistance for medically necessary services is based on family income and hospital resources, and is provided to children under age 21 whose primary residence is in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

Lurie Children's complies with applicable federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, or disability.